IN-PERSON New Schools of Thought

Abstract

Teacher professional development to interact with refugee students requires an approach rooted in trauma-informed practices and pedagogies. Our team has created an online, interactive manual to empower teachers to foster the skills required to analyze, question, and understand the complexities of refugee students’ experiences, and supports teachers to question their own assumptions, evaluate evidence, and consider multiple perspectives. This online, open access resource, challenges traditional pedagogies to ensure that teachers are equipped with a multitude of strategies and methods to meet the needs of diverse learners, especially those who have experienced forced displacement. We chose to create an online professional development manual with relevant, engaging, and interactive content to challenge traditional lecture-based approaches that often fail to capture teachers’ attention and facilitate deep understanding. Accessibility, equity and diversity are at the forefront of our digital designs. By incorporating multimedia resources, interactive platforms, and social media tools, we are able to enhance teachers’ learning experiences, and create resources that not only meet required curriculum standards but are also relatable and engaging to refugee students when integrated in the classroom. Our goal is to enhance teachers’ ability to reflect on how they convey information, and model, through our online resource, how to communicate content in an accessible, inclusive, and engaging way. By inviting teachers to critically examine and adapt their pedagogies and practices, we inspire a supportive learning environment for refugee students to foster their growth, navigate their resettlement experiences, and integrate safely and successfully in a Canadian classroom context.